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Friday, April 28, 2017

Search
engine giant Google India has been named as the country’s most attractive
employer brand, followed by Mercedes-Benz India at the second place, a survey
says.

The
sectoral specific winners for the most attractive employers this year are
Amazon India for e-commerce, ITC Ltd for FMCG and Philips India for consumer
and healthcare.

According
to the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2017, competitive salary and employee
benefits continue to be the top priority among the Indian workforce while
choosing an employer, followed by good work-life balance and job security.

However,
for the IT professionals, good work-life balance emerged as the top priority
while choosing an employer. “Employer branding continues to be of strategic
importance influencing the talent agenda, particularly so in an economy that’s
driven by knowledge workers,” Randstad India MD and CEO Moorthy K Uppaluri
said.

According
to the survey results, large and multinational corporations emerge as the
preferred workplace for employees across all profiles.

However,
IT professionals indicated that they would rather work in the dynamic start-up
ecosystem over the SME sector. On the other hand, engineering talent prefer
working in start-ups over the public sector companies, reveals the survey.

Sectorwise,
Indian workforce prefers to work for companies operating in sectors like IT,
followed by BFSI and retail & FMCG. “Organisations have come to realise the
value of employer branding and the return from such investments, both in terms
of attracting new talent and retaining,” Uppaluri added.

The
survey further noted that 31 per cent of employees, said they are not loyal to
any one industry or sector and are open to shift industries and compensation
remains a key driver in determining employee loyalty to a sector.

The
Randstad Award, instituted globally by Randstad, is hosted each year to
encourage best practices for talent attraction and to identify the best
‘Employer Brand’ in the country based on perceived awareness and attractiveness
of a company.

In
India this year, the Randstad Employer Brand Research captured the views of
around 3,500 respondents, who chose the nation’s most attractive employer brand
for 2017.

Fun
Factory has launches India’s first World Class Sports & Entertainment
Destination Arena and brings its innovative and immersive games to Bengaluru at
ETA Mall 1 Hosakare Road, Binnypet, Bengaluru. Fun factory is a venture of ETA.

The entertainment zone in ETA Mall is spread over 20,000
square feet in 2 levels and has
3 unique zones, Fun Factory, Playmon and Ghost.

Fun Factory the Next GEN Entertainment Zone, Constitutes
of various First of its kind virtual reality games including VR Car Simulator,
VR Flight Simulator, VR Climb, VR Shooter, VR Air Rider, VR Flying Simulator
and VR Extreme Rider. Fun factory also has State of Art 4 Bowling
lanes and 2 cricket lanes.

Fun Factory is ideal for all ages above 6 years.
Teenagers, Couples and Entire Family are
sure to have great fun in Fun factory as well as Fun factory will be a good
destination for Corporate Get together, Team Outing, Team Building,
Birthday Parties etc. With special packages, it’s a great option for
celebrations with a difference.

Whether you want to improve your sports skills, spend an
active weekend with friends or just unwind with the family, Fun Factory is
a place that has it all.

Playmon is a beautifully designed Children Play Zone located in the 3rd Level
of ETA Mall. Playmon constitutes of various gaming arcade machines,
interactive children slides, softball shooting, floating softball,
redemption ticket machines, indoor softplay etc. Playmon is sure to
be a great fun zone for Children between 1.5 years till about 12 years and
above. Playmon is ideal to celebrate Children’s birthdays.

Ghost is the first of its kind completely automated Walk
through Scary House located in 3rd Level of ETA Mall. Ghost is the next
generation attraction in which you will witness REAL GHOST with naked eye;
achieved through holographic projections. You will witness ghosts
coming out of the grave, skeletons suddenly appearing in front of you,
screaming ghost jumping on you and more. Ghost is completely automated and
sensor based and there are no human operators. Ghost is ideal for ages
above 6 years.

Commenting on the Award, Gupta said, “I am
delighted and honoured that I have been conferred this prestigious award by AIMA, which is a
recognition of our continued effort to provide wide range of unmatched and
superior quality products to customers across the world while raising benchmark
year after year. The award is also an acknowledgement of the spirit of our
entrepreneurship as we remain young, energetic and firmly focused on research,
innovation and development with an unflinching commitment to Make in India. We
will continue to create value for our stakeholders, make meaningful
contribution to the communities we serve and develop new products as part of
our endeavour to address the changing preferences of our customers across the
globe”.

He further added, “ I would also like to advice the budding
entrepreneurs to open their vistas, have a clear vision and take risk because
success comes to those who are willing to try and risk and fail and stand up to
do it all over again”.

A neutral jury chaired by Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka
Group selected the awardees under different categories. Suresh Prabhu, Minister
for Railways, Government of India was the Chief Guest, and Babul Supriyo,
Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of
India was the Guest of Honour who handed over the awards to the awardees.

The AIMA Managing
India Awards was established with an aim to recognize the achievers who have
made a fundamental difference, creating an edge above peers for others to
emulate. Since its inception in 2010, these Awards have been conferred on
leading icons from the Indian industry, media, sport and entertainment. Every
year, to recognize excellence in Management, Entrepreneurship and Leadership,
AIMA confers Awards.

Syntech Technology Pvt. Ltd., the Indian partner to Gionee’s
overseas arm, has announced its official corporate name change to Gionee India, for increased synergy between the corporate and the brand name. Gionee
India will henceforth be manufacturing and marketing Gionee smartphones in
India. Apart from the name, there will be no changes in the overall corporate
and financial structure which was being followed by the erstwhile Syntech
Technology Pvt. Ltd.

Arvind R Vohra, CEO and Managing Director,
Gionee India, says,
“Gionee today is amongst the most prominent smartphones brands in India, with
over 1.25 crore loyal customers. Therefore, transitioning to Gionee India was
the most apt decision for us, and reinforces our ever increasing commitment to
the Indian market. As Gionee India, we plan to double our sales this year to
reach the 10,000 crore mark, and garner 10 per cent market share in the
smartphone segment in India.”

Gionee has been present in India since 2012,
and was one of the earliest Chinese players in the market. Gionee prides itself
in launching smartphones that are intuitive, future ready, stylish, durable and
stress free. Today, Gionee India is a $1.42 billion firm with over 1.25 crore
happy customers. Gionee is credited with bringing in the world’s slimmest
phone, the biggest battery phone, the best android camera and many more to
India.

Mahindra Asset Management Company (MAMCPL) has
announced the launch of its two open-ended schemes 'Mahindra Mutual Fund Bal
Vikas Yojana' an open ended balanced scheme and 'Mahindra Mutual Fund Badhat
Yojana' an open ended equity scheme.

The new fund offer opened from April 20, 2017 and will close on May 4, 2017. Thereafter, the scheme(s) will reopen for continuous
sale and repurchase from May 18, 2017.

Mahindra Mutual Fund Bal Vikas Yojana, an open ended balanced
scheme, seeks to generate capital appreciation and income generation over
medium to long term through investment in equity and equity related instruments
as well as debt and money market instruments.

Investments in this fund can
be made only in the name of the minor child and contributions in the investment
account could be made by all family members and friends. The fund offers
optional lock-in investment till the child turns 18 years old, said a company
official.

The second scheme Mahindra
Mutual Fund Badhat Yojana - an open ended equity scheme - is best suited for
investors who are keen to get medium to long-term capital appreciation through
investment predominantly in equity and equity related securities including
derivatives, he said.

Ashutosh Bishnoi, CEO and Managing Director,
MAMCPL, said, "Every household inIndiahas a culture of
saving instilled in them. We want to leverage on this culture and explain the
investment opportunities through our offerings for every customer profile. In a
family, securing a child's future, safety and wealth creation are top
priorities. Therefore goal-based financial planning through our products helps
in systematicinvestmentsto create a secure
future.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Read all about the US Power Grid...

Turning on a
small reading lamp by your bed is as easy as flipping a switch. But, the
electricity that powers your tiny light starts miles and miles away and takes a
fantastic journey through high voltage power lines, transformers and regulators
before reaching your home.

All energy in
the U.S. is powered and regulated through the National Power Grid. This grid
controls the flow of energy between power plants, businesses and homes. As the
demand for energy increases, the grid operators must constantly keep up. If
they fail to meet the demand, or if any plants or power lines go down, then
everyone risks the dreaded blackout.

If energy is
that difficult to balance, what keeps it flowing on hot summer day and frigid
winters when usage spikes? The following animation explains how the grid works
to power not only your house, but every house on the block, in your city, town,
state and beyond at all times of the day.

With an astute vision to lead the toy
industry in India,Mattel Toys, the world’s largest toy-maker, has
charted a more robust and aggressive retail strategy. In a move to strengthen
its retail presence and deepen market penetration, effectively targeting
millennial parents, Mattel has formed strategic alliances with India’s leading
e-commerce platforms – Amazon and Flipkart, to
exclusive stores for its iconic brands Barbie, Hot Wheels and Fisher
Price.

Mattel’s focus in India for the
financial year is to expand and reinforce its retail presence including
creating multiple solutions with e-commerce partners; where the industry
projects over 50% growth. The expansion on ecommerce is in line with Mattel’s
strategy to enhance accessibility of Mattel’s products and provide greater
value for money to consumers. With this move combined with ring-fencing
traditional trade, Mattel expects to expand their market reach by over
20% within Metro, Tier I and Tier II towns.

According to the Euromonitor data,
Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are top markets for Mattel, followed by Hyderabad,
Chennai and Kolkata. The focus on strengthening e-commerce will ensure
expansion to other urban clusters across the country as well.

Said Ishmeet Singh, Country
Manager- India, Mattel Inc. “The Indian market is ever evolving and
the increasing spending power coupled with the convenience of e-commerce has
fueled our decision to create exclusive stores on leading platforms. We believe
that each toy comes with an intrinsic value that adds to the overall
development of a child. Our goal is to provide the best nurturing experience
for kids everywhere and these exclusive stores will offer the best products for
customers across the country.”

The exclusive stores for Barbie, Hot
Wheels and Fisher Price will showcase the entire product range across price
points, age groups and categories. The Barbie stores boast of a robust line of
dolls, playsets, doll houses, apparel and other licensed merchandise. The Hot
Wheels stores will showcase the wide range of die-cast cars and track sets, as
well as other merchandise. The Fisher Price store will house a wide range of
toys for new-borns and toddlers as well as building blocks from the Mega Bloks
range and toys from the line of Thomas and Friends; baby gear like portable
cots, strollers, feeding bottles and other developmental products like
convertible gyms and learning tablets.

Mattel Toys has focused its efforts
around the core philosophy of ‘Play with purpose’ – where each toy developed by
the global leader has an intrinsic benefit linked to it. The vision for Mattel
toys will continue to evolve and grow as a brand that is a trusted partner for
a parent and an integral aspect of every childhood.

Atos, a leader in digital
transformation, announces a worldwide first solution which captures
agricultural data directly via satellite to optimize farming practices.
Together with start-up TerraNIS, Atos is using its business analytics solutionAtos Codexto convert data into valuable information for the
agriculture sector.

Growing consumer expectations (demand for new products and
practices, traceability and food security), regulatory requirements and
environmental regulations, and the rising cost of raw materials (seeds,
fertilizers, pesticides, water) all put pressure on the agricultural sector.

Crop genotyping has now become a priority to support the
selection of crop varieties that will be best capable of solving future food
and climate crises.

As leader of the SparkInData consortium, Atos uses the
power of its Atos Codex analytics platform to capture data via satellite which
has biophysical indicators to help farmers best optimise farming practices –
such as best crop choice, appropriate crop nutrition and the right
fertilisation and harvesting periods.

A revolution in business and technology

Extracting information that is useful to farmers from raw
satellite imagery requires an immense amount of computing power in order to
manage and process the large amounts of data. It also requires a great deal of
business expertise to give practical meaning to the images.

Capturing and optimising agriculture data has many
immediate and long-term benefits:

§Optimization of raw
material management to achieve substantial cost savings of around 15%;

§Elevated qualitative
results - agricultural yields and production quality become sustainable and
reliable;

§Deepened knowledge of
operations, year-on-year evaluation of impact of different farming practices
helps farmers to continue to progress in their profession.

Case Study: European satellites for a major American customer

Atos is using the latest generation of satellites,
Sentinel-2 Earth observation, developed by theEuropean Space Agency(ESA), which is
capable of providing views using visible and near infrared light with a
resolution of 10m to 60m, a perimeter of 290km and a revisit frequency of five
days, which is ideal for monitoring crops.

For one of its biggest clients in the U.S. Atos is
monitoring more than 100,000 hectares of crops and 6,000 plots of land
(including wheat, corn, soy and vegetables) to provide biophysical indicators
of plant development, such as the level of chlorophyll and the proportion of
green foliage. This monitoring can detect any anomalies or discrepancies within
and between plots of land. By connecting this information with data from the
field, thanks to Atos Codex business analytics solutions, experts can then
provide diagnostics and suggest adjustments to farming practices.

Philippe Miltin, Global SVP Manufacturing & Retail at Atos:“With
the power and flexibility of new analytical and cognitive tools, we are able to
access the full value of this resource. This allows our clients in
manufacturing to refine their practices and adapt to the new economic,
regulatory, social and environmental needs. Together with start-up
TerraNIS we meet this dual challenge by combining its advanced agronomy and
imaging skills with the capabilities of Atos Codex.”

Dominique Grelet, Head of Atos Codex at Atosexplains: “The choice of Atos Codex technology brings a
great deal of flexibility to farmers, making it possible to deploy a similar
offering at any customer worldwide. We are proud to bring this cutting-edge
technology to customers, taking satellite imagery and relevant data and
transforming it into valuable information for immediate and long-term business
results.”

The new Atos Codex solution using business analytics via
satellite is available worldwide and can be deployed in a wide variety of
market sectors.

Atos experts will be on-hand atHannover Messeup until April 28to talk
in-depth about the Atos Codex solutions.

Speedo’s
V-Class goggle range has received a global seal of approval with a notorious Red
Dot Award for Design & Innovation for 2017, under the Sports &
Equipment category. V-Class is the latest edition to Speedo’s expanding goggle
portfolio, and has been recognised for outstanding design and excellence by the
expert committee at RedDot.

The V-Class range aims to capture the attention
of swimmers who desire to have a goggle that is stylish, comfortable and
provides an excellent field of vision, so swimmers can enjoy the best underwater
experience, with no interruptions. Available in both unisex ‘Vue’ and female
fit ‘Virtue’ goggles, the vibrant contrasting colour combinations; inject
energy and vitality into the range for the
S117 season, completing the look for frequent lane swimmers.

The
Red Dot Award scheme invites manufacturers and designers around the globe to
enter their products as part of the 2017 self-nomination process. The jury of
around 40 independent designers, design professors and specialist journalists
tested, discussed and assessed each individual product, awarding the Honourable
Mention for a well-conceived detail solution, the Red Dot for high design
quality. In total, the competition received more than 5,500 entries from 54
countries this year.

“The Red Dot winners are pursuing the right
design strategy. They have recognised that good design and economic success go
hand in hand. The award by the critical Red Dot jury documents their high
design quality and is indicative of their successful design policy.” Says
Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award

V-Class was developed in Aqualab - Speedo’s
specialist R&D department, to help deliver superior vision, style and
comfort in one goggle. The goggle boasts 2 x anti-fog technology, as well as
accommodating a clear, expansive underwater view.

The V-Class range encompasses attention to
detail with beautifully crafted, fluid design - particularly around the lens.
Particular attention was given to offer superior material quality and finish on
this range, even down to the packaging that it’s presented in.

Tim Sharpe, Head of Design and Innovation at Speedo International, said: “We’ve
drawn on our years of expertise of working with swimmers to improve and evolve
our goggle range to be the most desirable and effective available on the
market. Whether it’s for competitive racing or swimming to keep fit, goggles
are a great way to help swimmers to get the best out of their time in their
water. We approached the design of this new V-Class range as desirable and high
performing eyewear, offering a combination of superior vision technology and
design consideration down to the smallest detail, giving swimmers confidence in
addressing their needs, as well as offering comfort and style.”

Trend
Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, today
released its latestresearch
reporton the
activity of Pawn Storm (aka APT28 and Fancy Bear), an active cyber espionage
group that targets the global defense industry and politicians, among others.
Trend Micro’s researchers have found and continue to find phishing domains
created in March and April connected to political campaigns in France and
Germany. Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, a political organization in Germany, and
Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in France have both been targeted this year.

The Pawn Storm group has been operating for
years and Trend Micro first took note of their activities way back in 2004.
But Pawn Storm has
become increasingly relevant over the past two years, particularly because the
group has been found to be doing more than espionage alone. In 2016, Pawn Storm
attempted to influence public opinion, influence elections, and attempted to
sway the mainstream media with stolen data. Today the impact can be felt by
various industries and enterprises operating throughout the world. Even the
average citizen might be impacted as Pawn Storm tries to manipulate people’s
opinions about domestic and international affairs.

The research paper by Trend Microtakes a look at Pawn Storm's operations within the last two
years which also has compiled data on targets and campaigns conducted by the
group, as well as details on the specific attacks used to compromise victims.
The paper also provides some guidelines on how to defend against this
increasingly relevant threat, as well as solutions that can protect organizations from Pawn Storm's tactics.

“Our researchers have observed activity going
back seven years targeting government, military, media, and political
organizations around the world. In this report our researchers document
the group’s shift to focus on cyber propaganda over the past two years and
their 400 percent increase in targeting activity in 2016 alone,”saidEd Cabrera, Chief Cybersecurity
Officer, Trend Micro.

Following the extensive headlines made in 2016
related to their impact on the U.S. election, Trend Micro’s2017
predictions reportstates that cyber
propaganda will become a norm. The report even references the elections in
France and Germany where we now see Pawn Storm meddling.

To defend against an attacker like Pawn Storm,
Trend Micro providesTrend
Micro™InterScan™Web Security, which is a virtual appliance or acloud-based
servicethat protects
against cyber threats at the internet gateway with Advanced Persistent Threat
(APT) detection, real-time web reputation, and URL filtering. This tool blocks
user access to malicious URLs that are part of elaborate phishing scams. Pawn
Storm uses command-and-control (CnC) servers across multiple countries to
communicate with compromised systems, relay information, and deploy their
attacks.Trend Micro Deep Discovery Inspectorprevents these scenarios from taking
place by monitoring network traffic, C&C communications, encryption
behaviors, and zero-day exploitation.

Cautioning against protectionism, RBI Governor Urjit Patel has
said where would giant American corporations like Apple, Cisco and IBM be if
they had not sourced the best products and talent from across the world.
"I don't think that we have heard the last word on US policy talk about
this because there is a push back internationally that the world has benefited
from an open trading system," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor
said after delivering a lecture here.

He made the remarks
in response to a question on the rise of protectionist tendencies in major
world economies after he delivered the Third Kotak Family Distinguished
Lecture, sponsored by the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at the
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. He said the
share prices of the most efficient corporations in the world, including in the
US, are where they are because of the global supply chains.

"Where would
Apple be, where would Cisco be, where would IBM be if they were not sourcing
the best products and talent from across the world. And if policies come in the
way of that, then the big wealth creators in a country that advocates
protectionism are ultimately affected," he said yesterday. Patel said the
calls for protectionism in the US were on account of equity and domestic
distribution issues which "textbook economics tells us should be addressed
through domestic fiscal policy" such as taxation and income transfers.

He noted that using
trade instruments for protectionism may take a nation on a trajectory different
from that of growth. "Using trade instruments like customs duties, border
tax etc is not the most efficient way to do this. In fact you could end up at
somewhere else. You do not know what are the implications of some of these
policies on equity and distribution besides objectives that you want to
address," he said.

"It should be
a domestic policy issue, using domestic fiscal policy if those are the
objectives that need to be addressed," Patel said. Talking about the
Indian Rupee, the RBI governor said it was totally market determined and the
intervention by the central bank was only to mitigate volatility. "I think
that is a fair policy for us to follow going forward," he said.

Asked about the
autonomy of the RBI, he said, "We have been imbued with a legislative
responsibility of flexible inflation targeting framework only means that that
is a plus for the autonomy and independence of the central bank." On
financial inclusion, he said the most important step that was taken was when
every Indian household was given a bank account. He said it was now up to a
variety of players including the Non Banking Financial Companies to use that
opportunity.

"I think the
government should not use its fiscal resources for that. It has used its
ownership of the public sector banks to open up these accounts and I think
that's a large subsidy," he said. Asked if the federal compromise reached
to implement the GST would structurally weaken the tax reform and not reach the
potential growth opportunities projected, Patel said the manner in which the
GST has been structured as cooperation between the central and the state
government was a "great example of fiscal federalism" and that
strengthens the GST as a policy.

Patel was also
questioned about the troubles and difficulties faced by non-resident Indians in
exchanging the old currency notes following demonetisation. He said it was
decided by the government and the RBI that at some point "there has to be
an end to the demonetisation exercise." "Every country that has done
this has followed a certain course and so have we," he said.

Patel said under
Foreign Exchange Management Act regulations people were only allowed to take Rs
25,000 abroad and people were given enough time post-demonetisation. "We
needed to draw a line at some point. I think it has been a fairly generous
time," he said. On loan waivers, he said such measures do impact the
credit culture.

"The honest
borrower and the taxpayer pays for this, we need to be very careful with this.
There are other micro implications if this amount becomes large, they impact
the fiscal situations of the state governments and ultimately could lead to
some national balance sheet implications," Patel said. He also said that
China's exchange rate policy has become more market determined.

IT firmWiprosaid it will offer
bonussharesto its shareholders and
will also consider buyback of equitysharesaround July this year.

The Bengaluru-based company will offer one bonus share for every one share held
by shareholders (including to ADS holders) and expects the bonussharesto be awarded within two
months, i.E, June 24, 2017.

It said the step was taken to encourage participation of small investors,
increase liquidity and expand retail shareholder base. Interestingly, the
issuance of bonusshareswas not part of the
agenda papers for the Board meeting.

The process, timelines and other requisite details with
regard to the postal ballot will be communicated in due course.

"The Board of Directors will consider a proposal for
buyback of equitysharesaround July
2017,"WiproCFO Jatin Dalal
said.

In September last year,Wiprohad concluded the
buyback of 40 million equitysharesthat resulted in a
totalcashoutflow of Rs 2,500
crore.

Indian IT companies are under pressure to return excesscashon their books to
shareholders through generous dividends and buybacks.

Last week, shareholders of India's largest software company
TCS approved a Rs 16,000-crore buyback plan, the biggest in the Indian capital
market.

Infosys, too, has outlined its capital allocation policy
recently to return up to Rs 13,000 crore this financial year through dividend
and/or buyback, and while its smaller peer HCL Technologies has approved a
buyback of up to 3.50 croresharesworth Rs 3,500
crore.

Earlier this year, bowing to pressure from activist investor
Elliott Management Corp, IT company Cognizant announced a USD 3.4 billion share
buyback.

WiproBoard has also
approved re-appointment of Azim Premji as Chairman and Managing Director for a
period of two years from July 31, 2017.

It also approved increase in authorised share capital of the
company from Rs 610 crore to Rs 1,126.5 crore by creation of additional 258.25
crore equityshares.

From the first quarter of this financial year, more than 50% of
Wipro employees in the US will be locals, and going forward, it plans to focus
more on localisation.

Wipro Chief Executive Officer Abidali Z Neemuchwala said,
“There is lot of local talent, and our focus on localisation will continue in
all key markets.”

For the quarter ended March 31, 2017, while Europe grew 6.4%
q-o-q on a reported currency basis, America grew 1.4% q-o-q on a reported
currency basis.

“We have been significantly investing in the US, in terms of
increased hiring, setting up delivery centres and focusing our sustainability
initiatives specifically in the area of education,” Neemuchwala said.

The Americas accounted for 54.7% of Wipro’s $7.7045 billion
revenues in FY2016-17.

While APAC and other emerging markets contributed 10.8%,
Europe contributed 24.4%, and India and the Middle East contirbuted to 10.1% of
the revenues. Wipro has enhanced its capability in the US by adding two more
major multi-client delivery centres.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

VMware, Inc., a global leader in cloud infrastructure and
business mobility, sees growth in adoption of its digital workspace solutions
by Indian organizations. With more than 1 million end-points managed in India,VMware saw some notable customer wins
including – Max Life Insurance, MSC Software, Malayala Manorama, Karunya
University, among others.

VMware is one of the industry leaders in delivering a
secure digital workspace which gives IT a more efficient, simplified way of
managing users, devices and applications. The average return on investment for
digital workspace expenditures is 150 percent. In 2016, VMware surveyed more
than 1,200 IT decision makers, IT influencers, and business decision makers
worldwide and found 78 percent have successfully executed or are actively
executing mobile initiatives and are moving to a digital workspace.Digital workspaces deliver better security, reduce IT management
costs and complexity, and prevent data loss.

“The digital workspace is the defining model for end-user
computing in the mobile cloud era. Business is changing in India anddigital workspaces are adding real
business value for organizations, and at the same time allowing users to focus
on the work to be done, not the technology in their hands,”said ArunParameswaran, Managing Director,
VMware India. “We are at the heart of this change by delivering a comprehensive
end-user computing platform built on a mobile-cloud architecture that enables
organizations to drive digital transformation.”

“Enterprise mobility is witnessing a paradigm shift
towards consolidation of enterprise systems that seamlessly enable not just
multi-platform devices and apps, but also emerging connected devices such as
wearables, IoT, machine learning and virtual reality systems. Proliferation of
mobile endpoints has compelled businesses to address threat management with
automated and adaptive defence mechanisms while simultaneously driving richer
user experience. This year will see a change in how businesses approach
mobility, from a device-focused approach to a more comprehensive strategy. To
ensure the long-term success of enterprise mobile strategy, many organizations
are implementing ‘Mobile Center of Excellence’ where multiple stakeholders
having IT and business expertise are collaborating to reshape business models,
maximize corporate performance and derive business value,” said Benoy CS,
Director, Digital Transformation (ICT) Practice, Frost n Sullivan.

“India represents a complex and competitive life insurance
market. Technology plays a critical role in partnering with business and gives
us a competitive edge in the market. Business Mobility is one key area where we
are focusing on to enable our workforce to work more efficiently in servicing
our growing customer base better. We’re working closely with VMware to help us
with the end user computing strategy to empower our employees, while keeping
our confidential information secure,” said Ekhlaque Bari, Executive Vice
President & Head IT, Max Life Insurance.

“Delivering critical news as it happens is the advantage
you have over competition in the publishing industry. Thanks to VMware
AirWatch, our reporters can break news live from the field, much to our
readers’ delight,” said VV Jacob,General
Manager, Systems, Malayala Manorama.

Building on the digital workspace innovations to accelerate its
adoption, VMware recently introduced new updates to itsaward winning Workspace ONE solution. These updates make it easy for IT to
deliver unified access and single sign-on experience to Intranet applications,
and will offer richer conditional access capabilities that combine real-time
security hygiene with compliance automation. Updates to themarket-leadingAirWatch Unified Endpoint Management portfolio have enhanced
support across OS platforms for mobile (iOS, Android), desktop (Windows 10,
macOS), purpose-built (ruggedized) and IoT endpoints to simplify provisioning
and end-user onboarding.

Nasscom, the apex body of the Indian IT industry, on Monday
refuted allegations of the US administration and defended TCS and Infosys,
saying that the two got only 7,504 H-1B visas, which is 8.8% of the total visas
processed during FY2015.

The clarification comes after the US complained that Indian
IT firms TCS, Infosys and Cognizant unfairly received a major share of H-1B
visas by putting extra tickets into the lottery system, which the Trump
administration wants to replace with a merit-based immigration policy.

In a statement issued on Monday, Nasscom stated that only six
of the top 20 H-1B recipients were Indian companies during FY2015. Indian
technology companies use H-1B visas to send their employees to work at customer
sites in the US, which is the largest market for the over $110-billion Indian
IT export industry.

Nasscom also stated, “Every reputable data source in the US
has documented a growing shortfall between the supply and demand for computer
science majors in the US workforce, especially in cutting-edge fields such as
cloud, big data, and mobile computing.”

It also states that all Indian IT companies cumulatively
account for less than 20% of the total approved H-1B visas although Indian
nationals get 71% of the H-1B visas. “This is a testimony to the high skill
levels of Indian-origin professionals, especially in the very coveted STEM
skills category. The US Department of Labor estimates that there will be 2.4
million unfilled STEM jobs by 2018, with less than 50% of these vacancies in
IT-related positions,” points Nasscom.

In the US, along with other global markets, there is a
growing sentiment of protectionism, including coming up with various measures
to safeguard jobs for locals and raise the bar for foreign workers.

Every year, the US grants 65,000 H-1B visas while another
20,000 are set aside for those with American advanced degrees. Also, the Trump
administration wants to replace the current lottery system with a more
merit-based immigration policy.

The annual number of Indian IT specialists working on
temporary visas for Indian IT service companies is about 0.009% of the
158-million-member US workforce. “A survey also finds that the average wage for
visa-holders is over $82,000 apart from a fixed cost of about $15,000 incurred
for each visa issued which includes visa cost and related expenses. This is
over 35% higher than the minimum prescribed exempt wage of $60,000,” states
Nasscom.

Talent
shortage is acute in the IT and data science ecosystem in India with a survey
claiming that 95 per cent of engineers in the country are not fit to take up
software development jobs.

According
to a study by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds, only 4.77 per
cent candidates can write the correct logic for a programme — a minimum
requirement for any programming job.

Over
36,000 engineering students from IT related branches of over 500 colleges took
Automata — a Machine Learning based assessment of software development skills —
and over 2/3 could not even write code that compiles.

The
study further noted that while more than 60 per cent candidates cannot even
write code that compiles, only 1.4 per cent can write functionally correct and
efficient code.

“Lack
of programming skills is adversely impacting the IT and data science ecosystem
in India. The world is moving towards introducing programming to
three-year-old! India needs to catch up,” Aspiring Minds CTO and co-founder
Varun Aggarwal said.

The
employability gap can be attributed to rote learning based approaches rather
than actually writing programmes on a computer for different problems. Also,
there is a dearth of good teachers for programming, since most good programmers
get jobs in industry at good salaries, the study said.

Moreover,
programming skills are five times poorer for tier III colleges as compared to
tier 1 colleges. “Sixty nine per cent of candidates from top 100 colleges are
able to write a compilable code versus rest of the colleges where only 31 per
cent are able to write a compilable code,” the report said.